Category: Feature

  • Nick’s 2022 in Review – Streaming, Games, LEGO Sets, and All the Other Stuff

    Nick’s 2022 in Review – Streaming, Games, LEGO Sets, and All the Other Stuff

    It’s the in vogue thing to do to remember the year before it ends, but we’re not the most punctual here at FBTB, or more accurately, we all have lives and things to do, so we’re doing it after the first of the year. We have the recap post for our calendar still going to, just waiting for the final little touches as well, so start placing your bets on what month we’ll get that posted. My money is on March.

    I’m not sure that anyone is really going to mourn 2022, any more than we’re going to miss 2021, 2020, or the jokes about how this is just 2020 part 4 starting or whatever. Last year was a tire fire, because that’s the only type of year we get anymore. COVID is still a thing no matter how much we ignore it – and we got to add Monkeypox (yep, that was last year), Super-Strep, RSV, and so many other things on top of that along with it. Reading the news is more about “what is the scandal today” instead of being shocked by the news.

    We all cope in our own ways, through so many nerdy things, and I covered in my calendar review that a good deal of my tastes have changed in recent years. I don’t collect LEGO, and haven’t for some time. I do collect Warhammer, miniatures, and buy lots of things I don’t use a lot of. So, a lot of things haven’t changed.

    All that aside, 2022 wasn’t exactly an a terrible year for me. A lot of it, really, was mostly meh. My kids are doing good, and getting big. I’ll be talking about them plenty in here, because they’re influencing a lot of my choices anymore. I’m not going to talk about “New Years” resolutions in here, because I think they are stupid and you shouldn’t wait for an arbitrary day to improve yourself – that’s why my weight loss and health improvement plan started back in August. As of this writing, there is a third less of me in the world, and that’s always a good thing. There was entirely too much Nick around.

    That was my huge focus of the past few months, far more than gaming or anything else. Still working, and worrying, and anxiety, and every thing else, but mostly, just surviving, which is what everyone does anymore.

    LEGO and other Toys

    You know what, I bought more LEGO in 2022, for myself or for review, than I had in years. The AT-ST wasn’t even among that, because Ace sent that to me for review. Also, yes, I know, the Hoth AT-ST is different – still don’t care, my point about it being super niche is valid and sort of emphasizes that point. There are a bunch of sets I’ve snapped pictures for, and need to write reviews for, in the near future… it was going to come out after the advents.

    Shockingly, most of the sets are Star Wars, so you’ll have to wait and see. Nothing ground breaking, just chances for me to rant a bit. I got one big set in there, but I haven’t opened it yet. I also built one big set that I purchased last year and never got around to opening, so it will probably be the first review that I do. Yeah, I’m being vague. That’s what makes it so suspenseful!

    For other toys… I don’t know that I bought any, honestly. At least not any that weren’t an advent calendar or for a tabletop game. I don’t get action figures, and have sold off all of mine. I don’t even have any display shelves set up around me anymore, because I just don’t have the space for it. Truth is, I’m over most collectable swag and tat. It just takes up space, and don’t care for it.

    Movies, TV (Honestly, Streaming)

    So, I was going through the history of our posts to remember what I watched last year, to see that the Media post never got published because someone *cough* Ace *cough* never finished his part in it. Funny thing is that what I did last year also really reflected in this year.

    I had to dig through a lot of my streaming history to figure out if I actually watched a full, proper movie this year. My wife and I watched Parasite at one point, finally. I watched The Adam Project last March. We watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation every year for Christmas. I wouldn’t qualify the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special as a movie, but I did finally watch it. I don’t really count the dozens of movies I watched on Rifftrax and Mystery Science Theater 3000, but there are also those. Movie-wise, that’s about it. I didn’t watch any Marvel movies, or even rewatch any Marvel movies. I skimmed and skipped around a few Star Wars movies for reference, but that was more to find individual things.

    One thing I did not do, and never even made plans to do, was to go to a theater. Theaters, in general, are a thing that I don’t really enjoy. They’re too expensive, for me at least, especially around here. Taking my wife and kids to the movie, with popcorn, candy, and drinks, can very easily get above $100 for a matinee show. That being said, I know I’m going to at least one movie this year… the Super Mario Movie. My son is just crazy into Mario now, and honestly, I don’t think it looks all that bad. Disposable popcorn fare, sure, but that’s most movies to me anymore.

    That’s not to say I didn’t watch anything, though. I don’t watch movies, but I consumed a lot of shows and streaming this year. It’s easy to make jokes about how subscription services are just the new cable (and I’m pretty sure I made that point in articles years ago – this is basically what we were always going to get with the demand that we just be able to buy the channels we want). I have the Disney Plus subscription with Hulu, but also carry Paramount+ (because Star Trek and my son’s other favorite, Paw Patrol),

    Because we never posted our 2021 list – so I didn’t share the stuff that I discovered and started watching last year. Letterkenny, The Witcher, Only Murders in the Building, and What We Do in the Shadows were the shows that I started watching and loved in 2021, and they all got new seasons in 2022 (or very late 2021 and again in very late 2022 for Letterkenny).

    Peacemaker

    This may be the most NSFW thing I’ve ever shared on the site. Seriously, do not watch this around… anyone.

    I commented in my Advent Calendar Review that I didn’t watch a lot of comic stuff this year, or at least I didn’t watch a lot of Marvel comic stuff. I’d caught up on all the Marvel series last year through Hawkeye, which I really enjoyed (enough that it was on my 2021 list), but I’m just sort of over the MCU at this point. How do you get to Endgame and then keep upping the stakes? It gets tiring.

    You know what I did love, enough that I’ve watched it three timesPeacemaker. I’m not exactly enthused for Gunn’s actions on DC and all the stuff he’s done (even if it means that I get Cavill producing a Warhammer 40k universe launch over on Amazon). I never got around to reviewing it – and I really should – but I watched and actually liked the Snyder Justice League redo. Which is shocking, because I rather disliked Batman v Superman. I watched the Suicide Squad movie Gunn did, and it was… fine. The standout character in it was most certainly John Cena’s Peacemaker, who was the answer to the question “what would it be like if Captain America was a complete asshole?” – not like US Patriot, that’s more like misguided. This is taking the best and worse and going to 11. It’s honestly hard to describe.

    The stinger at the end of the movie where he seemingly died (I mean, spoilers, I guess, for a two year old film) set up the show, released at the start of 2022, and a lot of people were skeptical – myself included. Cena was a wrestler turned actor, and could he carry a show? The answer to that is a resounding yes. Not just in action, but there is absolute depth and so many facets to the characters on the show that you just need to watch. Peacemaker was an asshole you were supposed to hate in Suicide Squad, and you do, and still will, in the show. But you will also understand, hate, sympathize, and start to love him too. All of them, at once. There isn’t a weak performance on the show (well, except one unfortunate cameo at the end – but that’s more because of the actor).

    That and he plays piano on the show. It’s a brief scene, but it’s actually Cena doing it, and he taught himself to do it, just because he wanted to. That’s pretty cool.

    Shoresy

    I mentioned Letterkenny above, and I love that show – even if the recently released Season 11 is probably their weakest season. Still funny, absolutely, but lacking in the overall cohesive humor that most have. This past year also had the first big spinoff (other than the animated one from the main show) – Shoresy, starring Jared Kelso’s (show creator and the main character Wayne in Letterkenny) background character Shorsey leaving town and playing hockey elsewhere. On the main show, he was simply the comic character that was there to make fun of two other hockey players, Riely and Jonsey… you just sort of have to watch, and we never saw his face. It was just a running gag of him talking in a funny, high voice and often appearing bare-assed on screen and making “your mom” jokes.

    That’s what makes the spinoff show such a surprise. The crude and lowbrow humor is most certainly still there. It’s an essential part of what makes these things work. Humor that’s so basic yet sophisticated, full of fart and poop jokes that are somehow layered. More than that, though, compared to Letterkenny, this short series has a cohesive storyline and plot that runs through the season, and it gives both Kelso and the cast a lot more to do and act around. There’s depth to the characters that we don’t get in the main show. That’s not a knock on Letterkenny, because that’s part of the charm… the simplicity is the whole purpose of the small town, and often the reason the depth they have is simply stated and just happens.

    It’s all very, very Canadian – and continues that strange trend of how Canada has something like fifty thousand TV shows and only a thousand actors. Like everything Kelso does, it filmed on location in Canada, used a lot of Native actors for Native roles (far more than Letterkenny does, even), but kept the things that work well from the other show.

    Ted Lasso

    My wife and I were late to the game for Ted Lasso, and that sort of works in our favor. We missed the initial hype and the backlash that comes with all popular shows, so we got to enjoy it a lot. It’s surprisingly deep and enjoyable, a lot more than you’d think at first glance, and doesn’t shy away from some of the gut punches. Problem is that now we are on the boat with everyone else in wondering when season 3 is coming out. They missed the World Cup premiere, which seemed like the perfect time, and Apple isn’t known for actually… sharing anything.

    Star Trek: Prodigy

    This was… such a weird year for Star Trek. Discovery Season 4 started at the end of 2021 and… wasn’t great? I like Discovery, and anyone who feels like whining about new Trek can just go pound sand and continue to be delusional (and likely ignore the fact that they’re just repeating the same things said when TNG, DS9, and Voyager all came out). The actors in it are fantastic and I love the ship. Short Treks is legit fun and it brought that to us. But the latest season was uneven and rushed at best, and the story was just not all that enjoyable.

    Picard Season 2, which followed it was, and this is hard for me to say as an unabashed lover of Patrick Stewart and TNG, probably the worst Star Trek ever made this side of the Enterprise finale. I hated watching it, the plot, and just what it was doing. The whole idea of “let’s take the world right now, go two years in the future, and make it a little bit worse” was just bad. So very, very bad. Also, let’s give Picard some more secret Trauma, because the guy who’s been captured and tortured by the Cardassians and the Borg, used by the Borg to murder tens of thousands of his fellow Starfleet crewmen, and subject to dozens of other real and known things clearly needed more. It was just awful.

    Following on that, thankfully, we got Strange New Worlds, which gave us the thing that will make it so I will never hate Discovery no matter what it does, Anson Mount as Christopher Pike and the Enterprise pre-Kirk (well, mostly). This show was such a revelation and absolutely wonderful. We’re talking more of a shift going from The Motion Picture to Wrath of Khan. This is like going from Star Wars’ Holiday Special to Empire Strikes Back (which, I guess, also happened). That was quickly followed by Lower Decks, which is my favorite of the new Treks and gave us the wonderful DS9 episode everyone needs to watch.

    But this entry is about Prodigy, the Star Trek show aimed at kids and launched under the Nickelodeon brand. Everything about that sentence gave me pause, and led me to ignore it at first. And I did, until the next entry on my list got me to change my mind because I rapidly consumed everything I could and needed a next thing to watch.

    It has an uneven start, at least to an adult, because the thing you need to remind yourself is that it’s a kid’s show. It’s also a Star Trek show, and uneven starts and iffy first seasons are kind of what they do (unless you’re Strange New Worlds or Lower Decks – or parts of Voyager* and DS9**). The focal character, Dal, is extremely annoying when you meet him, something that doesn’t really change over several episodes. But that’s also kind of the point – the whole first season is about growth and change of these kids.

    Watching through the whole season, it’s hard to overstate just how well Prodigy captures the spirit of what Star Trek is, and how well the main characters exemplify it. The voice acting on the show, across the board, is superb, but a special callout for the incredible job that Kate Mulgrew does as Kathryn Janeways (not a typo). There is more character development and growth across the first season than in any other first season of Trek, and honestly, I’m willing to call it the best first season of Trek that’s ever been done. Yes, even better than Lower Deck’s season 1.

    *It was short, mostly because a chunk of the season one episodes were sprinkled in at the start of season 2, but overall more good than bad.

    **Emissary, Duet, In the Hands of the Prophets are all in the first season. So is The Forsaken, which has the absolute best moment you’ll ever get with Lwaxana Troi

    Andor

    I saved this one for last, because, holy crap. Just… holy crap. This is something we should review – not just because it’s Star Wars, but because I want an excuse to watch it all again. I’d been fairly burnt out on Star Wars since Rise of Skywalker crapped its way on to movie screens everywhere. I love Mandalorian, and I even liked Boba Fett, but they were also the sort of thing that I watched and was just kind of done with. I hadn’t gotten around to Resistance or Bad Batch, because of said burnout, and never got around to Obi-Wan either until after I started watching Andor and then it all just sort of exploded for me.

    I went back and immediately watched Obi-Wan (I enjoyed it, it’s fine, but more disposable) and Bad Batch (much better, and kind of like shades of seeing what is to come). Then I watched Andor again, because it’s absolutely amazing, and it makes you want to dive into the deep with Star Wars. It’s hard to dig into it too much without spoilers, and maybe I’ll do a third watch through to cover it here, because any show that makes woodwind-based marching band music tense-as-hell deserves your attention.

    Video Games

    2022 was a very strange year for Video Games for me. I… for about 95% of the year, I played the same few games I always paly – Call of Duty, sprinkled in with a bit of Star Trek Online and even a little bit of Star Wars the Old Republic. At some point in the middle of the year, the PlayStation 5 I’d ordered months before hand showed up and surprised me, so there was that, and I played Horizon Forbidden West for a bit before getting distracted. I never really went back to it.

    Part of the problem is that this year, my five-year-old son discovered two things: the Nintendo Switch and Super Mario games. The Switch, and by extension, the TV, have apparently become his now. So I don’t get on the TV all that much, as it’s shared between the whole family. I can jump on late at night, but don’t tend to. Most of my gaming as of late has been on the PC, and that just tends to be my guilty pleasure games, like throwing money to the terrible beast of Activision|Blizzard with CoD and World of Warcraft (yeah, I know, no ethical consumption in capitalism and all that… sometimes you just have to take the slime to make it so your brain can deal with the other crap).

    But at the end of the year, a few things changed. I decided I was going to do a couple of upgrades to my PC, which was pushing about four years old, and nabbed a deal for some parts. I may have also gone… a bit all out. I was able to get a bundle that put me at the top-edge of the AMD world, which, yeah, there are some trade-offs for that, but also, some upsides. So now I’m sitting on a Ryzen 7950X and a 7900XTX video card that can heat up my room pretty well when I feel like pushing it.

    My old rig was fine, it could still play any game out there, not even hitting the bottom rung of requirements. I have a PS5 and Xbox One X (though, aforementioned TV sharing issues – and we’re that weird family who only has one TV), but haven’t had a whole lot of things grabbing my attention on consoles as of late.

    Weirdly, the game that grabbed my attention and got me playing games again, admittedly after my computer upgrade (which wasn’t just about gaming, it was about a lot of other work too, and turning the old parts into a home server and storage box). It doesn’t come close to pushing this new machine. Or my old machine. Or my Steam Deck. Or my iPad.

    Vampire Survivors

    That game is Vampire Survivors, and it is amazing. It’s a game that has no business working as well as it does. It’s vaguely a rogue-like survival game, two genres which I don’t generally get all that enthused for (though I loved Hades last year). It’s an auto-attacker style game, which means you basically don’t do anything other than move. The graphics are all pixel-based and very basic, and it’s firmly in the indie scene.

    This starts to go a lot worse for me in a bit

    The design of the game is also built on top of a whole lot of gambling mechanics – the developer worked in the gambling and casino industry… but that’s the whole twist of the game. It’s random and hits like a slot machine, but there are no transactional elements to it. None whatsoever, and it’s designed to prevent it. In fact, the developer, in seeing that people were making crap knockoffs of the game and uploading them on mobile platforms, just went and developed a version and released it for free on iOS and Android. There are two optional ads that can be watched to support it – one to get a rez, one to get a bonus reward at the end. And that’s it.

    Sometimes, the game just decides it wants you dead. I swear, my character is in there somewhere.

    On PC, Mac, and consoles, it’s worth every cent. It’s a satisfying gameplay loop, and even though it looks like there’s just a little bit of content, but that’s not even close to true. See, the game is a true throwback, because it decides to do something quaint, and reward you for playing.

    You unlock characters by playing and doing things. You unlock stages by playing and doing things. You unlock different music by playing and doing things. Remember when that’s how you got stuff, and it wasn’t just a charge, or DLC, or something like that? Remember when you didn’t have to buy boosters or level bonus helpers or assistants or season passes? Remember when a game was just a game?

    It’s so satisfying for there to be a mechanic that’s just about rewarding you for opening something you earn in the game, and giving you something. And that’s it!

    Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters

    Square|Enix is a company that spent all of 2022 going “hold my beer” to every video game company getting bad press. They sold off most of their non-Final Fantasy games, have decided that NFTs are the future (spoiler: they are not, they have, and always will be, a ponzi scheme at best to sell to idiots, and if you like them or want to defend them, you are also an idiot). They’re still doing that, and even though Actiblizz is a shitshow, Ubisoft is just… terrible, EA predatory, Nintendo anti-competitive, and Microsoft is the Borg… Square|Enix somehow ends up being worse.

    Their business model, going forward, seems to be basically re-re-re-re-releasing the same things over and over. Luckily, though, they finally, at long last, released the Pixel Remaster versions on platforms other than the PC and mobile – hitting both Playstation and Switch in December (not coming to Xbox, sadly). To celebrate, they ended up on a very good sale on PC, and they work great on the Steam Deck, which as I mentioned above, I had picked up around Christmas. I’m likely going to end up writing about it because I got it for a pretty specific reason, which I’ve written about before here.

    I love these games, though, they’re a huge part of my childhood, so getting to play through them again is a big bonus. I’ve played through them on my iOS devices, and… they’re fine. But they belong on a console and controller. And now they can be.

    Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West

    I barely played one of these (Forbidden West), but have spent quite a bit of time playing the other – on my new computer build. I’d played the original game a lot on my PS4, it was fantastic and one of my favorite games of that whole generation. It’s been a great game to go back and just enjoy for the fun of it. I don’t have a whole lot to say on it, really, other than it’s weird to see Sony be slowly, begrudgingly, drug into the reality of supporting things outside of their console world.

    Also, I’m eventually going to get around to playing more Forbidden West, really. It was a good game. Also, I need to play the new God of War.

    Tabletop and Books

    If my Advent Calendar stuff wasn’t a hint, the tabletop was where I put a good portion of my year. Warhammer 40k and its offshoot games like Kill Team and Necromunda were my big mini games, along with a little bit of Age of Sigmar (the fantasy version), continued dabbling with Star Wars Legion and Marvel Crisis Protocol continuing, and completely checking out of Fallout Wasteland Warfare as well as a large chunk of my Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures (well before all of the kerfuffle with the OGL stuff, but more on that later).

    The first army I’m working on this year is my Necron force. They’re a great representation of the state of my hobby, as I’ve had a lot of these minis since I got back into 40k back when the Pandemic started…

    I also completely exited the 3D printing hobby – I just realized that it’s not something I like or enjoy doing. I really enjoy the maker space, I do, and I like dabbling and working with things. I am still going to do those things… but printing just isn’t here yet. It’s interesting, and it can be fun, but it’s also frustrating, messy, time consuming, and expensive. You end up spending more time troubleshooting, tweaking, and repairing than you do actually printing. Especially when you deal with the consumer-grade end of the spectrum. The support of companies that are big in the space are just the worst to deal with for what one would charitably call support.

    I also don’t print things for my main tabletop games – yeah, Warhammer is a very expensive hobby. So is LEGO. Much like how that doesn’t justify going out and stealing sets, or buying knock-off sets, it doesn’t justify buying recasts or the pure knockoffs either. Companies like LEGO and GW are not our friends, and they don’t need or have to price things to “be nice” or “fair.” Capitalism sucks, and it is inherently predatory. Those companies exist to make money, and they will often do baffling and annoying things, but the option for us is to always just “not buy it” and “not participate.”

    Some of these were painted in 2021, some of them were painted in 2022. What can I say, I like tanks.

    I don’t really begrudge the people who want to go and print custom armies, and have no issue with custom terrain or bits or the like – or even printing models for stuff that’s out of print. Where I take issue is when people start doing it instead of purchasing the products from smaller local stores that are the lifeblood of the hobby and local scene. Often with the justification of “I buy my paints there to support them.” Yeah, buying $20 worth of paints doesn’t make up for the amount those stores makes up off even one model kit, let alone an army. Support your local stores, even when that means you also have to buy from the company that kind of sucks. Unless that company is Wizards of the Coast, because f*** them.

    The year was started by working on my Orks. I didn’t finish them, but did get a fair number of them painted. Sadly, they got kinda nerfed pretty bad, but have since come back, so may have to dust them off. The picture is also blurry because I focused on the wrong thing but I’m not going to fix it. Cause I’m lazy.

    I played some Dungeons and Dragons this year, but my big, long-running homebrew campaign wrapped up late last year and I never started up another one as a DM. I sort of took the time off and haven’t worked on my homebrew setting at all. I sometimes miss it, but I often don’t, because it’s just so much extra work. Gaming while adult is hard… and goes something like this:

    When is everyone free? Okay, how about three weeks from now. Okay, let’s plan on that, I’ll send out something, let’s plan for this time. Send reminders for the next couple of week. Get notices at the last minute that people can’t make it. Frantically reschedule at the last minute. Shocked messages from a couple others that it was happening. Game gets postponed. Repeat process. 

    I have a group online where we do get together, but life just gets in the way, and our campaign became two or three mini-campaigns, one-shots, and things to try out. We did a little Spelljammer, a bit of Eberron, some stuff in the Critical Role setting, and a little bit of a custom world. I’m thinking of running some stuff this year with my fairly deep collection of other systems, like Star Trek Adventures, the Star Wars Narrative Dice System (Edge of the Empire / Age of Rebellion / Force and Destiny), Pathfinder, Starfinder, or maybe even some old-school D&D.

    This is a small sample of some of the potential books. What should I start with here, what would people like to see? Leave a comment or hit us up on the Discord and let me know.

    That was actually one of the things I was doing a lot of this year it was trying to hunt down, collect, and purchase older RPG, hobby, and general nerdy books. In part, because they’re just make me happy and bring up a lot of memories. But also, because I’m considering using them as part of a new content series, maybe something like Bothan Book Club or maybe Midlife Nerd Crisis or something like that. Doing Book Reviews or something like that for ancient books or old content, maybe torturing myself with old Extended Universe books, that sort of thing.

    Looking Forward to 2023

    I mean, it’s already 2023, so this is maybe looking down more than looking forward, so who knows. Last year, I put in a general rule of “not watching trailers” for a whole lot of stuff – especially for TV and Movies. I don’t know that I watched a movie trailer on purpose last year… if it happened, it was because I was watching something where it was on and couldn’t be skipped (like a football game in a commercial, etc.). They’re often too packaged or don’t represent what’s coming… that or, honestly, I just want to be surprised.

    I don’t even really care about spoilers (which are often unavoidable); in fact, if I know I’m not going to see something, which I usually won’t, I’ll just go spoil it for myself. But I want the experience to unfold in watching something, without the context or bias of the trailer. What that all means is that… I don’t really have any movies or shows I’m just waiting for, except for the next season of shows that I’ve already watched. Most don’t even have announcements yet. Shorsey is getting its second season in May, and eventually Ted Lasso is going to get it’s third and final season (which makes me a bit sad, but also I’m glad they’re just ending it).

    Picard Season 3 starts very soon, hopefully it doesn’t suck out loud like season 2 did, and there is more Trek coming after that I’m sure. I’m more excited about Mandalorian Season 3 coming back, and I put the trailer above, but going to be honest – I haven’t watched it (and won’t watch it). I’m going in as blind as possible to the show. We don’t know when Andor is starting back up, but oh my god, I will probably wake up in the middle of the night to watch the premier episode. We just got word that King of the Hill is returning, and so is Futurama, both on Hulu, but neither have a date and I don’t expect either to be this year.

    On the tabletop… things are kind of weird. Dungeons & Dragons maker Wizards of the Coast recent just absolutely crapped all over the bed and pissed off a huge chunk of their fans by giving them the finger, telling them all they were worth is their money, and saying they were going to shut down all the stuff they loved. Then being arrogant and declaring victory after it was revealed that about 90% of 3rd party creators would not use their new system.

    For my part, I’m likely going to fully embrace the worlds of Paizo and their Pathfinder Second Edition system as my fantasy tabletop game of choice. I didn’t mesh with Pathfinder 2E initially, but will give it another go and try to adapt my homebrew world to it. Yes, it’s currently published under the original OGL, which Wizards has now backtracked on and released under the Creative Commons license.

    The issue is that Wizards has lost all trust, and it’s clear that their next product is meant to kill off the existing game, their online tool Beyond D&D, and all of the purchased and created content. So whatever they’re making is bad for players and bad for the game – clearly, whatever is coming is a dead-end product and should be avoided. That means that other things are in order and it’s time to try them.

    For video games, I don’t keep up on a lot of the upcoming releases. I know that Star Wars: Jedi Survivor is coming out, and I’m tentatively looking forward to it. It’s still an EA game, and somehow they became the least evil company out there because they only do old fashioned evil and not all of the new abusive evil. There’s a new Legends of Zelda game we still know next to nothing about, and I probably will have to invest in a second switch by then because my kids have totally co-opted my Switch as their own.

    I’ve poked around all of the LEGO stuff… and yeah, not a whole lot that I’m likely to buy unless it’s explicitly for a review or they happen to make something that’s a big space set (which seems unlikely) or an old video game or computer system (also unlikely, because there’s not a lot left to mine there I don’t think). Mostly, I think, I’m just sort of keeping my 2023 open and going to be pleasantly surprised when something excites me and not let down because I didn’t set a lot of expectations.

  • What We’re Looking Forward To In 2022

    What We’re Looking Forward To In 2022

    As we go into the 25th month of 2020, it feels like time has no meaning anymore, yet it turns out that things do keep coming out and there’s plenty of marketing things to stir up FOMO and get us excited. It’s telling exactly how much the pandemic has sort of skewed the whole perception of time, though, when you think about it. Like… how many people even remembered that the Snyder Cut of Justice League came out in 2021 until I put it in my list of 2021, or that the boat got stuck in the canal less than a year ago?

    It’s hard to even gauge some of this when it comes to video games, because so many things got pushed back from last year to this year, or announced without any dates at all. Both the Xbox and the PlayStation were guilty of it, but the PlayStation, especially, saw most of its marquee titles moved to 2022 at the earliest. Still, there’s plenty of things coming, so here’s the things we’re looking forward to the most, be it media, tabletop, or maybe even some toys. Who knows, it could happen.

    Ace

    Look, my list is all about video games right now because that’s pretty much where my head is at. I will include a list of non-video game honorable mentions at the bottom though.

    Splatoon 3

    I need to lead with this. Oh yeah. My favorite Nintendo franchise is coming back. And I am more than ready to come out of retirement to get my splat on. Heck, maybe I’ll come out early and work off the rust in some ranked battles in Splatoon 2. No solid release date yet. It can’t come out soon enough. I am STOKED!

    Metroid Prime 4

    True story: E3 2017. I was driving to the L.A. Convention Center in stop and go traffic on the 110. Nintendo’s Direct was airing so I did what I advise everyone NOT to do and set up my phone on my dash and brought up the stream in my YouTube app. I watched and watched and the moment the trailer played and the words “Metroid Prime 4” revealed itself, I just lost it in the car. I may or may not have shed a tear too. My favorite Nintendo franchise is coming back as a proper sequel to the Metroid Prime trilogy.

    Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

    It came as a bit of a surprise when Nintendo pegged a 2022 release date for this game during that one Direct. Sadly, I haven’t finished the first BOTW yet, but that should be pretty easily done at this point. Everytime I go back to the game, I keep trying to finish the Master Sword trial and failing. Meh. I guess I don’t need it. I can’t wait for my favorite Nintendo franchise to come back with the BOTW sequel. I’m guessing the holiday season will be the release window.

    God Of War Ragnarok

    Eric told me that playing the PS5 upgrade of God of War is “life-changing”. I’ll take his word for it right now but I do kinda want to get back and play New Game + mode. Might be a good way to whet the appetite. Completing that game on Give Me God of War difficulty is still one of my greatest video game achievements. Ragnarok looks more of the same but like way more and that is just fine because what is already there is awesome!

    Gran Turismo

    So like this video came out a few days ago as I write this, a 30-minute deep dive of the game. It looks phenomenal and I don’t say that word too often. It comes out on my birthday month, on March 4th to be exact. That’s in one month! Needless to say this is the game I’ll be playing on my personal new year day and then some.

    Horizon Forbidden West

    I was hesitant putting this one down on this list. I really liked the story and combat of the first game, especially the combat. Fighting off robotic prehistoric dinosaurs with a bow, trip wires, and what have you, just so much fun. But for some reason, this sequel is something I can wait for a sale on. That’s how I got the first game, might as well follow tradition.

    Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2

    Ah, Final Fantasy VII Remake. The game where everyone in your party is ridiculously attractive. I haven’t heard a peep about Part 2. No trailer, no teaser photo, no release date, nothing. Supposably, Part 2 is supposed come out this year, but I’m not holding breath. And honestly, with all the games I mentioned above, I wouldn’t mind if Part 2 came out in 2023 or later. And since there’s no video for FFVIIRP2, I posted one of the DLC pack for Part 1 with Yuffie. This reminds me, I still need to play through that.

    Honorable Mentions

    Okay, so non-gaming stuff? In no particular order:

    • Reducing my video game backlog.
    • The last of my Kickstarters finally being delivered. I’ve given up supporting anything on there. It’s a bad habit, full of FOMO and other nefarious tactics. I’ve only regretted backing one thing on there, I’ve received everything else thus far, and I consider myself extremely lucky for that track record.
    • Stranger Things coming back on Netflix.
    • My tax return.
    • Dining in indoor restaurants.

    Eric

    I always like to look back at last year’s post to see how the games I anticipated actually turned out. So, quick review time!

    Hitman 3. Yes, I was excited for it, but I actually never bought it. As much as I liked the game loop of these Hitman games, I’ve just never really found a great need to buy them on release. I still haven’t even gotten around to playing Hitman 2.

    Deathloop. This one was my Game of the Year, until I played Bowser’s Fury. Deathloop is so, so fun, and I’ll probably write an in-depth review of it one of these days. But if you haven’t played it, and you like action games, pick it up.

    Resident Evil: Village. People love this game, and while I don’t think it’s bad, it’s definitely not my favorite Resident Evil game. I thought Village was fine, but haven’t really had an urge to go back and play it. Although I do like that the overarching story of Resident Evil actually progressed for once. I’m interesting to see where Capcom goes next with this series.

    Little Devil Inside. Still waiting on this one to come out. Still excited. Looks like Winter 2022, and if gets delayed, I’ll probably be mentioning it again this time next year.

    Back 4 Blood. This one…hoo boy. I didn’t hate it, but me and my buddy just fell off of it really quickly. All of the mechanics in the game are pretty good, it just didn’t have the staying power I hoped it would.

    Which leaves one game. Still. For the third year in a row.

    Sigh. Throw up the teaser.

    I haven’t watched this trailer. I haven’t watched anything that’s come out in the last year. I’ve been going back and playing old Soulsborne games in anticipation.

    There’s not much I can say about this one, honestly. We all know it’s going to be great. It comes out February 25, 2022. 

    Aside from Elden Ring, I’m weirdly content with the games I have right now. I’m working my way through my back catalogue, currently playing through The Last of Us: Part II and Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. So I figure I’ll just keep churning through the hundreds of games I need to play through and wait for 2023.

    Nick

    I really don’t know a whole lot that I’m looking forward to this year when it comes to video games, and I have no idea what’s coming out for LEGO. There’s plenty of stuff out there, and I’m sure some shows. I’ll be honest, last year, I kind of adopted a “wait and be surprised” attitude a lot of the time when it came to stuff. I watched very few trailers, I didn’t seek out a ton of information, so I went into stuff blind a lot.

    I also didn’t play new releases for games, and just generally let stuff go. Which certainly saved me some money and time, and generally, stressed. Turns out I didn’t miss most of it. Weird.

    Saints Row

    I’ll admit, I’m a little bit skeptical about this game. I honestly don’t trust THQ Nordic and their parent company, Embracer Group, to make fantastic games like the old Deep Silver was capable of doing before THQ imploded. Saint’s Row started its life as a buggy-as-hell GTA clone that had a decent story to become a better-than-GTA game with III and a “it has no right to be this stupidly fun” over-the-top romp in IV that threw everything out the window in the franchise and opened the game up by having you climb a nuclear missile with Aerosmith playing in the background before aliens invaded and blew up the earth.

    I repeat, that was the opening of the game. It only got crazier from there. I loved that game, and still play it from time to time, because it was just crazy. Sometimes, you gotta go with the crazy game. The new entry, due in the middle of the year, is supposed to go back to a mixture of comedy and drama, somewhere between 2 and 3, and have a bit.

    Starfield

    I honestly don’t know if I’m excited for this game, which is 11 months from release supposedly. It’s never going to come out in November – my prediction for 2022 is that it gets pushed to March next year. Microsoft is bad at a lot of things, and I’ve written plenty about all the terribleness that Bethesda does, but both of them haven’t had the deep-seated crunch exploit culture that dominates a lot of the other big companies. I’m sure they have crunch in spurts, all video games companies unfortunately have that baked into their DNA, but it’s not the pervasive, constant culture that made up “Bioware Magic” and forced out all the Naughty Dog titles.

    This game is supposedly a year out, and we know nothing about it except that it’s a Sci-Fi title from the company that makes Elder Scrolls and Fallout. It’s exclusive to the Xbox on consoles, the first “big” exclusive of the generation and why Microsoft ultimately paid all those billions. Sony players will need to come to the PC to try it, or grab an Xbox Series S. Those are decent enough bones to build from for a game, and hopefully we learn more in time.

    Mostly, though, I’ll admit I want them to get this out so they can work on Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout V.

    Ms. Marvel

    I’ve made no secret that Ms. Marvel / Kamala Khan is perhaps my favorite “new” hero of the last decade. Given the fantastic job that’s been done on the other shows on Disney+, this one feels like a perfect fit, not just because it will fit well

    She-Hulk

    In that same vein, the other show I’m excited for is the angry green lawyer. I like the character, and there are two very good recent runs that could be drawn on for the show… Charles Soule’s 2014 run and Mariko Tamaki’s 2017 Hulk where Jennifer dropped the “she” from the title. The former is more likely, as the latter is a fantastic run, but relies on a lot of established trauma and in-universe events to draw from for the story. It’s a great read, and could be drawn into a great later season, but hard as a starting point.

    More than that, though, She-Hulk is a great connecting title to pull together a lot of other characters and shows. She has long-time ties to the Avengers, but also to the Hell’s Kitchen and Defender types. Bringing in the Netflix characters, you know, for no particular reason, is easier through this character and show. It can also bring in a lot of other characters that didn’t quite make it elsewhere, like Squirrel-Girl, etc.

    Basically, the show has promise for the title character, and promise for everything else it offers. Probably more than any other Marvel show to date.

    Warhammer 40k – Eldar Craftworlds

    I talked in great length how Warhammer 40k became my hobby of choice in 2021, and that looks to continue in 2022. One of the big reasons why is that my “first” Warhammer 40k love, Craftworld Eldar, i.e., Space Elves, are getting a huge revamp this year… their first in a very long time. The model range for Eldar is the oldest in 40k, with some of the kits and models ranging back to the mid-90s without an update, and the average age of kits in the range coming in somewhere around 20 years right now. Compare that to most of the Space Marines I posted, which are all 1-5 years old (a few may be older, but most are pretty new).

    Maybe I’ll write more for the two or three out there who care, maybe not. I honestly haven’t decided… but seeing the army I like fills me with joy and my wallet with dread. This is going to be an expensive and busy year for me, hobby-wise. Time to start clearing out the pile of shame to make room for all the new stuff.

     

  • Best Prices Ever on Dungeons & Dragons Books

    Best Prices Ever on Dungeons & Dragons Books

    This isn’t related to Nintendo, Video Games, or LEGO… but I’ve talked about how I’m a big D&D player on the site before. I’ve been playing it since I was a kid, and got back into playing it a lot a few years ago. I already own the full product line, but Amazon is making it very, very, attractive and inexpensive to get into the hobby. D&D has never been more popular than it is right now, but it’s kind of daunting taking that first step.

    While most of the books have an MSRP of $50, and usually sell through Amazon for about $35-40… most have been offered for $22+ this week (in the US… doesn’t look like the pricing cuts extend to other countries). Even better, the incredible and beautiful Art and Arcana Special Edition, which normally costs $125, is on sale for just north of $55. I picked that up immediately, and it’s gorgeous. The standard edition is also discounted, and has the same art book but none of the extras. The $25 extra for this version are worth it to me…

    If you’re interested in D&D, the Starter Set is a great thing to… you know, start with. As a gift for kids who might be interested, it’s also a great introduction, and gives you everything you need to play and run a first game. Plus, the included adventure is legit, and can be used even for experience groups.

    Two of the three core books are on sale as well, the PHB (which players should have), and the Monster Manual (which DMs should have, but also is just an essential sort of book). Curiously, the Dungeon Master’s Guide is not on sale, despite being as important to a DM as the Monster Manual.

    Setting and Expansion Books are on sale, including the relatively recent book that adds the first Wizards of the Coast crossover between D&D and Magic the Gathering. Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica adds that world and setting to D&D for the first time, officially, which is sort of amazing to think it took that long. Of these, Xanathar’s guide is close to essential, since it gives a lot of new things for players and Dungeon Masters to use. Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes is more for DMs (but does include a couple of new races for players), and Sword Coast is more of a setting book, but has some new backgrounds. The holdout not on sale here is Volo’s Guide to Monsters, which is a shame. It’s a fun book.

    The Adventure Books provide pre-made adventures for Dungeon Masters to run, and several on sale, including the newly released Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and recent hits like Tomb of Annihilation, Curse of Strahd, and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. Tales from the Yawning Portal is the curious holdout here, but honestly, it’s not that great. You can also pick up older adventures like Storm King’s Thunder, Out of the Abyss, Rise of Tiamat, Princes of the Apocalypse, and Horde of the Dragon Queen (the sale prices vary on them).

     

    Fun fact on our feature image… that was the result in a game that I’m playing in when the DM asked my party to roll for initiative when we walked into an ambush. We survived, but we all laughed about how badly we were caught flat-footed.

  • Review: Star Wars Episode VII – The Force Awakens

    Review: Star Wars Episode VII – The Force Awakens

    Life can be a funny thing, sometimes. I started writing this review December 18th, 2015, after I’d slept through a midnight showing of Force Awakens in IMAX. Then I got this crazy idea that everyone on the staff should go write their own impressions of it… before I realized there are like two of us (or four, depending on what’s going on), and we have jobs and kids and lives. So it just sort of fell by the wayside as we went about reviewing other things.

    My initial thoughts were captured in our forum thread on it, as well as tucked away in the reviews for a lot of the Force Awakens sets. Since after watching this movie, one of the first things I did was run out and buy the new Falcon and Kylo Ren’s shuttle… it stands that I really liked the movie. I’m under no pretension that this was the greatest Star Wars movie of all time (obviously, that’s Jedi, given my love of Ewoks). At the same time, it seems pretty popular to throw shade at this particular movie… be it because of the (intentional) similarities between it and A New Hope, the involvement of Disney, or for the people that stopped enjoying anything Star Wars made after 1983.

    When I was writing reviews for the original and prequel trilogies back before this came out, starting with Episode I and working up to the good ones, I was all prepared for the time when I got to The Force Awakens review and had to rip into it. The odds of it working were stacked against it for a whole variety of reasons. It was Disney, who’s focus is always going to be on generating merchandise over storytelling (not that they don’t tell a story). It was Star Wars, where half of the existing films are considerably worse than the rest. It was JJ Abrams, who has already ruined a lot of Star Trek for fans. There had also been some pretty heavy-handed actions by Disney and Co. leading up to it, issuing takedowns and threats, etc.

    The hype around this film was absolutely unreal. It was pretty unlikely that it could ever come within the same zip code on delivering on that hype. Star Wars fans are just the worst, and nothing ever, EVER If it was awful, we all would have sat back and gone “see, told you it was going to be terrible!” There’s a problem with that whole narrative, though…

    … is that it was actually a pretty good movie.

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  • Review: Star Wars Episode VI – Return of the Jedi

    Review: Star Wars Episode VI – Return of the Jedi

    As a lead up to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, FBTB is going to do something crazy (and likely something that a whole bunch of other sites are going to do too), and review the previous movies. Why? Because shut up, that’s why. We are going to take a slightly different take, other than just eviscerating the PT and fawning love on Empire Strikes back, and actually look at some of the impacts that it has on the toys and stuff we really love. Plus, it gives us an excuse to make fun of Jar Jar. It’s basically win-win. 

    As I’ve said a few times on this site, Return of the Jedi is my favorite Star Wars movie. I’m willing to concede it’s not the best movie (that’d be Empire), but it’s the one I’ll always associate with growing up. Jedi came out in 1983, when I was four years old. I don’t remember seeing it in the theater (the first movies I remember seeing where Disney’s Pinocchio and Supergirl, both of which I saw twice)… but I rented all of the movies more times than I can remember. Along with Tron and some Go-Bots cartoons, the Star Wars trilogy was my go-to, and Jedi most of all.

    Unlike Empire, Jedi focuses on the adventure of the story and bringing a close to the somewhat loosely defined story points. Everything could have ended with Star Wars if it had been a flop, but Jedi left everything up in the air even while it concluded it’s specific story (and should serve as the template on how to close a movie without resolving a series). It’s pretty easy to say that expectations for Return of the Jedi were insanely high… there was the story of how Luke was going to face Vader, the fate of Han Solo, and in general the whole fate of the Rebellion.  In some ways, I’m not sure RotJ could ever meet the expectations set out for it.

    It’s also a movie that served in a lot of ways as a warning sign for what was coming in the prequels, but also probably stands as the most entertaining of the movies by itself, especially across different ages. The problem with being more entertaining is that those movies is that they also tend to be less memorable… though I think this particular film may have missed it. Of course, there’s one last thing about Jedi that will always hold special meaning, and that’s for a throwaway line by Mon Mothma. Which lets me make this joke, something years in the making!

    Many Bothans Died to bring you this review…

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  • Review: Star Wars Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back

    Review: Star Wars Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back

    As a lead up to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, FBTB is going to do something crazy (and likely something that a whole bunch of other sites are going to do too), and review the previous movies. Why? Because shut up, that’s why. We are going to take a slightly different take, other than just eviscerating the PT and fawning love on Empire Strikes back, and actually look at some of the impacts that it has on the toys and stuff we really love. Plus, it gives us an excuse to make fun of Jar Jar. It’s basically win-win. 

    I’ll be honest… I was very tempted to make this into a one sentence review: “It’s awesome, now shut up and go watch it again.” I’m sure some people like to argue against the fact that The Empire Strikes Back is the best of the Star Wars movies. Those people are wrong. The Empire Strikes Back is the best of the Star Wars movies. Mind you, it’s not my favorite, but being the best and being a favorite are not required to be the same thing.

    A whole lot of ink has been spilled as to why this movie is the best of the bunch. The fact that Lucas didn’t write the screenplay; he wrote the original story and did what he does best, have ideas… but ultimately let other people expound on them and make them better. Leigh Brackett (initially, until her death) and Lawrence Kasdan ultimately wrote it, Irvin Kershner directed, and Lucas focused on the special effects with ILM.

    This is less a review, and more focusing on what Empire does well (and, honestly, where it sort of misses). It may be a little shorter, because it’s well established that I would rather talk about Ewoks anyway.

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  • Review: Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope

    Review: Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope

    As a lead up to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, FBTB is going to do something crazy (and likely something that a whole bunch of other sites are going to do too), and review the previous movies. Why? Because shut up, that’s why. We are going to take a slightly different take, other than just eviscerating the PT and fawning love on Empire Strikes back, and actually look at some of the impacts that it has on the toys and stuff we really love. Plus, it gives us an excuse to make fun of Jar Jar. It’s basically win-win. 

    When my daughter and I sat down to watch A New Hope, there was a big difference in her reaction compared to any of the previous movies. Sure, she’s only three, so her attention span is not what I would call… “existing.” Still, she was excited just by the crawl, and then by the SPACESHIPS in a scream that would have made Benny Proud. But the real moment that really made me laugh was when the Stormtroopers break through the hatch to get on to the ship, to which she started to yell “oh no, watch out!” to all of the poor Rebel Troopers. To be fair, she reacts the exact same way when watching Frozen, and Elsa and the Ice Monster are trying to get away from the soldiers from Weselton.

    It’s hard to really pin down what makes A New Hope, or just Star Wars if you are old enough, so special. Unless you were alive for the initial release, which I was not (though only barely), it may seem hard to believe that it was so unlike anything else ever seen. It was at one point mystical kung-fu film, another Flash Gordon style space adventure, and the rest a special effects masterpiece before special effects were really even a thing. While Jaws had introduced the idea of blockbuster, Star Wars showed what the idea of a Blockbuster really was.

    More than that, it was the movie that made merchandising more than just an “oh, and this too” to the focus of the whole enterprise. I mean, when you can sell blank cards with the promise of action figures to the world and it actually sell, you’ve made some sort of evil pact with the forces of darkness. That pact had to extend to the sheer luck of George Lucas, because even though Obi-Wan doesn’t think such a thing exists, this movie is like 60% luck, especially when you read about some of the things that happened behind the scenes or in production. When the iconic space battle happens in a trench because the plastic used to make a model shrinks (and the builder had the skill to convince Lucas to just incorporate that into the story instead of, you know, fixing it)… luck certainly exists.

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  • FBTB’s Holiday Gift Giving Guide

    FBTB’s Holiday Gift Giving Guide

    With the holidays upon us and shipping deadlines fast approaching, I cobbled together this short post with a couple of recommendations for the gift-giver in you, or maybe give you some ideas on what to put on your wish list. I could make this list twice as long but I thought I’d cherry pick just a few to cover a range of ideas. Still stuck? Email me; I’m more than happy to give my two cents.

    On to the list!

  • Review: Star Wars Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

    Review: Star Wars Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

    As a lead up to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, FBTB is going to do something crazy (and likely something that a whole bunch of other sites are going to do too), and review the previous movies. Why? Because shut up, that’s why. We are going to take a slightly different take, other than just eviscerating the PT and fawning love on Empire Strikes back, and actually look at some of the impacts that it has on the toys and stuff we really love. Plus, it gives us an excuse to make fun of Jar Jar. It’s basically win-win. 

    Given the hate that I enjoy piling on The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, I suppose it’s a little bit surprising that Revenge of the Sith is the Star Wars movie I’ve watched the fewest times. It’s easily the best of the Prequel Trilogy, but I just get so tired of the prequel by the time it gets to Revenge and something in my nerd brain won’t let me watch just one movie. But if I want to watch the good Star Wars movie, I have to get through the bad ones. Those are the rules, as ironclad as needing a flag if you want to have a country.

    Again, thanks to our man Austin for the incredibly poster art, because they should have just marketed the entire movie like pulp 50s Sci-Fi. I mean, this is such a “Revenge of the Creature” kind of movie compared to Episode II, it kind of fits. We don’t have any gill men running around, unless you count Grievous, but it was in black-and… you know, I really don’t know where I was going with that joke. It’s just that MST3K has been in at the forefront of my brain lately.

    As a collector, Episode III came at a pretty interesting time. There was a lot better feeling about Star Wars after Attack of the Clones (as compared to TPM), even if the film hasn’t aged quite as well. However, LEGO was also struggling at this time, and the action figure market was really starting to tumble around Star Wars. The initial wave of Episode III sets are still probably the worst overall lineup that LEGO has ever offered (in my never-ever humble opinion, anyway), and still includes some real stinker sets.

    Of course, for me, some of that is hindsight, as I was towards the tail end of a dark age. I also didn’t see the movie when it came out, waiting a few weeks after the release before I managed to get time to see it. I was busy with something… what was it… oh right, getting married. I didn’t have the heart to drag my wife to another movie like this, so had to find a friend who wanted to go again. So a whole lot of reasons why the best of the PT still doesn’t occupy as many of my opinions as the rest… maybe because it’s harder to hate. Or it could be because it’s the prequel film that lacks depth the most.

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  • Review: Star Wars Episode II – Attack of the Clones

    Review: Star Wars Episode II – Attack of the Clones

    As a lead up to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, FBTB is going to do something crazy (and likely something that a whole bunch of other sites are going to do too), and review the previous movies. Why? Because shut up, that’s why. We are going to take a slightly different take, other than just eviscerating the PT and fawning love on Empire Strikes back, and actually look at some of the impacts that it has on the toys and stuff we really love. Plus, it gives us an excuse to make fun of Jar Jar. It’s basically win-win. 

    I’ve said in a few different reviews that Episode II: Attack of the Clones is the worst of the Star Wars movies. At the very least, it’s my least favorite, and watching it again, while sober, did nothing to change that opinion. Sure, I’m bias as all get out, but most people who’ve known me know that I try to keep an open mind, even on things I disagree with. My daughter had never seen Episode II, and it’s the only Star Wars movie my wife has ever watched all of, so I wanted to give it a chance.

    I should know better, time can’t turn any amount of Bantha Poo into Gold Pressed Latinum. I might be mixing franchises though, unless you buy the theory that the Star Wars setting was created by a time-travel accident where a task force of Federation, Ferengi, Romulan, and Klingon ships were experimenting with faster warp technology, hit Warp 10, and ended up long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. Then after arriving, settled planets, eventually evolved, found the Force, and built the Old Republic. A theory which I just made up while writing this paragraph, mostly because I think Sisko: Jedi Knight would be kind of Awesome.

    The lead-up to Episode II was a whole lot different from the lead-up to Episode I, and there was a lot more trepidation with what was coming. By this time, all the adults (and some kids) hated Jar Jar, Jake Lloyds career was dead, and Episode I gave Michael Bay all the inspiration he needed to perfect the “awful movie that makes all the money” formula. I’m willing to bet a lot fewer people remember the Episode II trailer compared to the Episode I. It also represented a time of real uncertainty for LEGO… which is kind of sad, since Episode II has also given us some just awesome sets over the years (and gave us a good decade to yell at LEGO for not making a Padme figure).

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